1. (i)
ABSTRACT
THE FEASIBILITY OF IMPLEMENTING SMART GRID APPLICATION USING
BROADBAND POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
Jerry Kuri
Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, PNG
The 21st Century civilization introduces many major paradigm shifts in our
lifestyles, especially in metropolitan cities such as Lae, Mt. Hagen and Port
Moresby, including many townships and some rural communities in Papua New
Guinea. The PNG Power Limited (a nationally owned electric power generation,
transmission distribution and access company) as the sole service provider of
electricity relishes a monopoly market over the last four decades. The utility
company has been actively involved in the electricity market and its
infrastructural development, growth and expansion to provide basic services to
consumers ever since its inception.
However, the existing electric power grid and its associated network devices
(such as transformers, switches, circuit breakers, etc.) have been

2. (ii)
deteriorating dramatically in its performance, adaptability, resiliency and
reliability and efficiency in its operations and its thriving efforts to meeting the
ever growing demands of the customers and the utility company’s goals and
vision. The cascading style of network design, configuration and architecture of
the existing grid may create an avenue for faults and failures inflicted thereupon
in other geographical location(s) along the powerline network topology affecting
other linked networks and their normal operations in order to perform at optimal
range.
This is mainly attributed to the aging power grid and network devices being
tagged on the grid as well as some other physical conditions such as temperature,
humidity, atmospheric pressures, tectonic activities along the grid network
including human actions (such as vandalism, theft, fire, etc…). Technicalities such
as improper grounding systems (i.e. not following standards), natural hazards
(such as lightning and landslides) along the grid, harmonics and machine tripping
(due to untimely synchronization), load management issues, electrical theft and
open circuit(s) along the network are also some contributing factors that affect
the overall performance and efficiency of electricity generation, transmission,
distribution and supply (access) in a cascading manner. Possible solution(s) to all
the aforementioned problems is the main motivation of this thesis work.

3. (iii)
The Smart Grid Concept poises as an emerging solution to mitigate these issues
and problems associated with the electricity grid and its performance ratings in
Papua New Guinea as well as some other parts of the world. Problems such as
continuous blackouts, lack of automatic fault- detections and healings, the
inability to resolving load management issues, etc. can be resolved amicably.
This thesis work embarks upon the vision and possibility of automating the old
existing grid to becoming one that will acquire the status of a smarter and
intelligible network via the implementation of Smart Grid Infrastructures and
Applications over the powerline network. This work presents models, simulations
and analytic discussions of the simulation results. The design overview of the
broadband powerline communication system’s viability for realizing a full duplex
communication system for Smart Grid network is brought into the scenarios. The
powerline transmission channel is modeled as noisy channel using different
Digital Modulation techniques and a comparative analysis is presented to
determine the channel characteristics performance based on Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Spread-Spectrum Modulation
presentation which are the two chosen modulation techniques. A quantitative
analysis to measure and compute the PLC system performance in terms of the:

4. (iv)
 Bit error rate (BER) computations
 Adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) measurements
 Error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements
 Modulation error ratio (MER) measurements.
are selectively presented and discussed.
Because BER measurements and calculations are fundamental to the
characterization of any communication system, this thesis dissertation explores
Matlab/Simulink tools and its capabilities for configuring BER test scenarios and
accelerating BER simulations: the BERtool, Error Rate Test Control, Channel
Visualization tool, Eye diagrams and signal constellation scatter plots, Signal
trajectory plots and BER plots are used interchangeably in this work.
In this work, the goal for higher data rates and QoS (Quality of Service)
requirements is main motivation to pursue in this undertaking. Mathematical
models and simulations using the Matlab/Simulink, Network Simulator 3(NS3) and
EMTP/ATP are employed. Another alternate analysis using the PAN-SIM
simulation package (PLC Access Network Simulator) is further explored in this
work’s analysis to realize broadband powerline network architecture for
implementing the Smart Grid Network Architecture.

5. (v)
The performance evaluation and efficiency, the Quality of Service (QoS) in terms
of Bit Error Rate (BER) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) for the powerline medium
are the main criteria chosen to be analyzed and evaluated in the simulation
results. Also an analytical study of the mathematical models and simulation for
the Powerline Channel using Communication Techniques aiming to use electrical
power lines for data transmission is presented. In this context, this paper is
focused on the mathematical and computer model of a part of an electric power,
evaluating their performance in terms of electrical representation, as well the
transmission of the communication signal at high frequency. The PLC is an
excellent solution because uses the conventional energy grids, no need for new
transmission lines, sending by the same channel the electrical signal and data,
with difference in frequency range.
Also noise parameters (AGWN) and the transient impulsive noise which occurs
naturally in any communication channels are considered in the evaluation of its
performance characteristics.